I can’t think of any colleagues on the RTD Board who enjoyed last Tuesday’s vote on the staff proposed fare increase.  However, in the words of one fellow Director, the majority agreed it was necessary to “bite the bullet” on this one.  The attached Denver Post report provides a pretty good summary of the final vote:  [...]

RTD has been conducting public meetings with a specific focus on its alalysis of the technology options for the Northwest Rail system.  The final meeting will be this Monday, September 24 at the Celestial Seasonings facility in Gunbarell.
At these meeting, RTD staff is presenting the results of its comparison analysis between electric-multiple-units (EMU) and diesel-multiple-units [...]

Here is a web-cast interview on FasTracks that the good folks at Eight Days a Week conducted with Boulder City Councilmember Richard Polk and me:
Quicktime version on bouldernews.info in the Boulder Issues, Events & Organizations category: http://www.bouldernews.info/BoulderNews.info/Boulder/Boulder.html
Flash version: http://bouldernewsblog.com/
Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdZzrCFaRQE

As I explained in a previous message, the RTD Board has been considering a staff proposal to accelerate a planned increase in transit passenger fares.  The original assumption was that RTD would pursue a fare increase in 2009.  However, staff argues that rapidly rising expenses for such budget items as fuel, mandated disability services, and employee health insurance premiums, are undermining RTD’s ability [...]